Agence France Presse | By Oscar Duron | June 25, 2003
Hundreds of protesters rallied Tuesday against US efforts to promote genetically modified food as agriculture and trade ministers met in California to debate the explosive issue, organisers said.
Police in the state capital, Sacramento, said 11 people were arrested on the second day of protests, bringing the total number of those picked up -- mostly for failing to disperse and blocking traffic -- to around 70.
"Our mass mobilization against the scourge of genetic engineering in our food has been triumphant and the talks inside are falling apart," claimed protest leader Patrick Reinsborough. The activist said around 1,000 protesters had hit the streets of the state capital, but police put the number at more than 100.
The three-day conference, hosted by the US Department of Agriculture, comes as Washington pressures the European Union to accept bio-engineered food and prods the World Trade Organization to help in that drive.
US negotiators in Geneva last week failed to persuade Europe to lift a ban on biotech foods while US and European officials look set to do battle over the issue at a WTO conference in Cancun, Mexico, in September.
Washington, leading 12 other nations, has launched a bid at the WTO to have an EU moratorium on the use of GM crops overturned.
The three-day Ministerial Conference and Expo on Agricultural Science and Technology lasts through June 25 and has participants from the agriculture sector from 100 countries.
Conference delegates are discussing how to find ways to end hunger in the world and to improve the quality of nutrition through the use of biotechnology, the Department of Agriculture said earlier.
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said it would focus on methods of raising food crops to help developing countries, and on how to end hunger by 2015 -- an objective established last year by the WTO.
But activists said biotechnology is no antidote for hunger and claim the long-term health risks of genetically modified foods have not been fully studied, and that risks remain.
They say that the administration of President George W. Bush supports the practice because of successful lobbying by large corporations that want to peddle their goods in the developing world.
Police spokesman Sam Somers (Eds: correct) said Tuesday's protests were far smaller than Monday's demonstration that police said gathered some 2,000 people, and that protester organizers claimed numbered 5,000.
"Since Sunday we have arrested around 70 people in connection with these protests, including 11 today, but those figures are liable to be revised as we process those picked up," Somers said.
Activists complain that police protecting the event have been heavy-handed in their bid to control demonstrators as ministers met inside a convention center here.
There has been an "incredible show of force by the police, a climate of fear and intimidation in an effort to silence our constitutional rights of expression and constitutional assembly," said protest organizer Leda Dederich.
"I think, basically from the beginning, there's been a concerted strategy to be intimidating."
Sacramento police chief Albert Najera acknowledged that the heavy police mobilization had been intended to head off demonstrations.
"That was the intention," he said "The mission today was to keep the march to the prescribed route and to have an overwhelming show of force."
On Monday, horse-mounted riot police clashed with demonstrators dressed as tomatoes and ears of corn, arresting at least 57 and probably more, Somers said.Agence France Presse:
